Finally world will have new CriIcket World Champion on 2nd of April 2011 after a decade with India beating Australia in a quite remarkable game of cricket.The Australians broke the Indian hearts in 2003.And Indians took the revenge of that defeat on Thursday by defeating Australia by 5 wickets and knocked the 4 times world champains out of the World Cup 2011.Now India is just two steps away from their destination- The World Cup trophy at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 2.
The super star of the day was a man “Yuvraj Singh” who first bowled really well and picked up two crucial wickets and then he thrashed out Australian bowling attack all around the park. Yuvraj Singh scored an unbeaten 57 runs off 65 balls and put on a winning partnership of 74 runs for the sixth wicket with Suresh Raina (34* runs off 28 balls) and steared India to semi-final against Pakistan in the 30th of March 2011.Yuvraj Singh was declared Player of the Match for his all-round effort.With this win now India will take on Pakistan in the 2nd Semi Final of World Cup at Mohali on 30th of March 2011.
Earlier Australian Captain Ricky Ponting scored an excellant hundred to guide his team to get to 260 runs in the 50 overs. This was Ricky Ponting 5th World Cup hundred and 29th in ODI. Brad Haddin (53 runs) and David Hussey (38 runs) also provided good support to his captain to guide Australia to a competitive total.
Chasing the target of 261 for win,India got off to a great start.Both Sachin Tendulkar (53 runs) and Virendra Sehwag (15 runs) provided a good platform by putting on 44 runs for the first wicket before Sehwag miscuite a pull straight in the air in the 9th over. However Sachin Tendulkar kept his cool to reach his 93rd ODI fifty and in between he crossed 18000 run marks.
Gambhir scored a superb 50 runs off 64 balls before he was run out by Cameron White when Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh played out a comedy of errors Motera stadium crowd stunned in to the silence when M.S.Dhoni caught brilliantly by M.Clark at point on bowling of Brett Lee in the 38th over.
India still needed 74 runs to win in last 13 overs of play.
But Suresh Raina was involved in a brisk partnership of 74 runs off only 10.1 overs with Yuvraj for the sixth wicket.While Raina scored a quick-fire 34 off 28 balls, Yuvraj completed his fourth fifty in the tournament,consisting of eight fours. Together they both not only washed away the hopes Australia of winning a fourth consecutive world title,but also set up a mouth watering semi-final clash with Pakistan at Mohali.
Virendra Sehwag is not declared fit yet but decision on him will be taken just before the game, if he is declared unfit then India is likely to go with same XI otherwise Suresh Raina is likely to miss the game.
Australia on the other hand look to play with four seem attack, which means John Hastings is likely to get the game. Also Cameron White who is struggling with form may be replaced by David Hussey.
India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (Captain & WK), Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, R Ashwin, Munaf Patel.
Australia: Brad Haddin (WK), Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting (Captain), Michael Clarke, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Steve Smith, John Hastings, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait.
The Pitch at Motera looks dry and flat. So team winning the toss is likely to have bat first and put the opposition under pressure by putting up big score on the board. In later part of the inning it will help spinners,so toss will play an important part in this game.
The most awaited game of the quarter final between four time world champion Australia and one of the tournament favorite India will be played on 24th March at Motera. A battle would be for the semi-final spot and both teams would look forward to register a win and move to Mohali to play Pakistan in the 2nd Semi Final on 30th of March 2011.
So far performances of both teams with bat and bowl are not as expected. Both teams’ middle order or some patchy bowling.India has struggled to play their full quota of 50 overs as the middle order has collapsed in almost all games.
On the other hand the worrying factors of Australia are Captain Ricky Ponting’s bad form, Cameron White looking out of sort and late order batsmen is not good enough to cope up on the spinner friendly track.Australia who is currently ranked number one team in ODI,eventhough after the retirement of Hayden, Glichrist, McGrath and Warne,is still a very good side and is a tough team to beat.
M.S.Dhoni and Company would certainly be fancying their chances of knocking the defending champions out of the tournament and stay in the hunt to bring back cricket's biggest title to India after 28 years.
Pakistan marched into the semi-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 with a crushing ten-wicket win over the West Indies in a one-sided quarter-final in Dhaka.
An outstanding bowling performance by spinners Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez who grabbed eight of the wickets to while pacers Umar Gul and Abdul Razzaq grabbed a wicket apiece to dismiss the West Indies for 112 before openers Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal saw them to their victory target inside 21 overs.
Pakistan will now play the winner of the match between Australia and India, which takes place in Ahmedabad on 24th March. The semi-final is in Mohali on 30th March.
23rd March: Pakistan v West Indies, Dhaka
24th March: Australia v India, Ahmedabad
25th March: New Zealand v South Africa, Dhaka
26th March: Sri Lanka v England, Colombo
Yuvraj was in a fine touch,after scoring three fifties in the tournament.But this time he made his maiden World Cup century.He scored 113 off 123 balls, including ten fours and two sixes.He was declared the Man of the match for his outstanding performance both with bat and ball.
Ashwin’s opened the bowling for the West Indies innings.Kirk Edwards was given out as LBW to Ashwin after an umpire referral.Darren Bravo joined Smith and put on 57 runs with Smith for the second wicket.Bravo was caoght by Harbhajan off Raina.
Smith stabilized the with Sarwan and took the scoreboard to 154 for two.but then Zaheer Khan was reinroduced into the attack and he bowled Smith for 81 off 97 balls.After that the innings just collapsed under immense pressure created by the Indian bowlers and the whole West indian team was bowled out for 188.The last eight wickets fell for mere 34 runs.Zaheer finished with three wickets, while Ashwin and Yuvraj finished with two wickets apiece.
Earlier in the day, India won the toss and opted to bat first. As Sehwag could not recover from knee injury,Gautam Gambhir opened the innings with Sachin Tendulkar, but their partnership didn’t last long. Tendulkar was caught behind the wicket bowled by Ravi Rampaul and he walked off despite the umpire not detecting the inside edge.
Virat Kohli walked in at number three and took the score to 51 before Gambhir top edged one to third man, again off Rampaul.He bowled Kohli in the 33rd over. But he put on a partnership of 122 runs for the third wicket with Yuvraj Singh. Kohli was out for 59 runs off 76 balls.Yuvraj played an extraordinary knock of 113 off 123 balls, including ten fours and two sixes.
At the other end, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina failed to get going, and when Yuvraj was sixth out on the last ball of the 45th over.Rampaul bowled Yusuf Pathan for 11 and then Zaheer Khan for five.Rampaul took a career best five for 51.India were once again faced the lower-order collapse.Andre Russell removed Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel.
Indian team was bowled out for 268 runs in 49.1 overs. Their last six wickets had fallen for 50 runs in 7.3 overs.India’s batting powerplay was again costing them four wickets for 28 runs in just 4.1 overs.
India beat the West Indies by 80 runs in the last match before the knockout stage of the ICC World Cup 2011 at Chennai.India made 268 with the help of Yuvraj Singh’s excellant knock of 113.Chasing 269 for a win,the West Indies team was bowled out for 188 in 43 overs.With this win,Indians secured second position in Group B, behind South Africa and ahead of England and West Indies.They will play against Australia in the Quater final at Ahmedabad on 24th March.
